Thursday, September 12th, was the first-ever meeting of the Sequoia High School Student Senate.

The Student Senate is a group of students from all areas of the student body. This includes club leaders, ASB members and heads of organizations. Everyone who participates in the Student Senate gets to vote on schoolwide decisions. This program gives a voice to those who might not have had a say before, such as club leaders and other members of the community.

Ethan Politzer is the Chairman of the Senate. He spoke for long periods of time on Thursday, talking about the goals and organization of the program. He said the reasoning behind the Senate was because, “there’s a lot of support from ASB, a lot of ideas from ASB, and not really encompassing our whole school ideas and all the groups that exist here.”

Voting in the Senate is a simple process. All representatives get 1 vote to answer either yes or no, with the option to abstain. During the first meeting, students voted on subjects such as homecoming spirit week themes, and future Halloween events.

The meeting went smoothly, with many students sharing opinions and asking questions regarding the subjects they were voting on. The structure of the meeting was similar to an open group discussion with a main speaker instead of a presentation. This helped the Student Senate end on time during the small flex window.

Additionally, Mr. Priest, Principal of Sequoia, talked about school statistics in front of the group. His goal was to share with the Senate the vision he hopes to see for the school. He shared numbers such as overall enrollment, sports team population and media center data.

Overall, the first Senate meeting proved to be a promising glimpse of future decision-making for Sequoia. With topics already being discussed and an introduction by Mr. Uhalde and Mr. Priest the student Senate is a program that will hopefully bring great benefits.